30
Wednesday, January 20, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
SYP: Sisters community
was receptive to
program
Continued from page 1
Citizens4Community (C4C)
nonprofit, asked everyone to
find a seat, about a hundred
people settled in their chairs,
prepared to listen and learn.
“I am humbled, inspired
and hopeful by the turnout,”
Holdman began. She admit-
ted to living in Sisters for 10
years but purposely “hiding
out,” not getting involved in
the community — until now.
Holdman was troubled
by the public discord she
had been witnessing in pub-
lic meetings and in letters
to the editor in The Nugget.
Serendipitously, she heard
several times about a simple
program called Speak Your
Peace (SYP), with tools to
help promote public civility
and community engagement.
At the Economic Vitality
Summit last year, Holdman
talked with others who were
having the same concerns. She
contacted the SYP headquar-
ters in Duluth to learn more
about the program. Holdman
then attended a Sisters City
Council workshop with Lisa
Dobey, who described for
Council her personal experi-
ence with the SYP program
while executive director of the
Truckee-Tahoe Community
Foundation. Joining in on the
phone was national spokes-
person for SYP, Rob Karwath.
Council liked what
they heard and encouraged
Holdman to proceed, which
she did. She gathered sev-
eral like-minded locals and
together they established
Citizens4Community. With a
grant from the Ford Family
Foundation they were able
to bring Karwath to Sisters
last week to address a num-
ber of group meetings from
last Wednesday night through
Friday morning.
Karwath’s only handout
at the meetings was a small
business card listing the nine
tenets of the SYP program:
pay attention; listen; be inclu-
sive; don’t gossip; show
respect; be agreeable; apolo-
gize; give constructive criti-
cism; and take responsibility.
Through a series of stories
illustrating how other commu-
nities have adopted some ver-
sion of SYP — to help them
get unstuck, or improve com-
munity discourse and engage-
ment, or simply improve an
already healthy functioning
community — Karwath’s
message began to take hold
among the attendees.
For the rest of the meeting,
he asked people to break up
into groups of six to eight and
identify what they thought are
one or two issues facing the
community and how the nine
tenets might help residents to
address the issues and make
some headway.
The hum of dialog filled
the community hall, as
friends, neighbors, and com-
plete strangers openly shared
their concerns with each other.
The level of engagement was
obvious when Holdman had
difficulty bringing everyone
back together. A spokesper-
son from each group reported
on what they had identified as
a difficulty that might benefit
from people agreeing to con-
duct themselves according to
the nine tenets.
Not surprisingly, there
were mentions of the pro-
posed paved trail between
Sisters and Black Butte
Ranch. Another group thought
an overarching problem lay
not in any particular issue, but
rather in the way community
members respond to conflict
— in an “annoying and sharp
manner.”
Karwath expanded on that
point, saying that often “it’s
not so much about a particu-
lar problem but more about
the way we engage with one
another.” If someone feels
he has been treated roughly
or unfairly, chances are he
will withdraw from any fur-
ther engagement because the
environment doesn’t feel safe.
When that disrespectful treat-
ment is repeated again and
again, the result is a commu-
nity that becomes disengaged
and starts to die.
If someone makes a com-
mitment to incorporate and
regularly practice using the
nine tenets of civility, other
people are impacted — and
the more people who choose
to conduct themselves in
a civil manner, the greater
chance that the community
can heal, re-engage, and move
forward.
Besides the Thursday-
evening community meeting
with about 100 in attendance,
Karwath met about 30 town
leaders at a Wednesday-night
reception. There were three
other sessions on Thursday.
photo by JoDi schneiDer mcnamee
rob Karwath laid out the principles of Speak your Peace.
Kiwanians and representa-
tives of other service clubs,
totaling about 60, met in the
early morning at Aspen Lakes
Lodge.
Kiwanis member Jan
Failing said, “I like what
he (Karwath) had to say. I
thought the tenets were excel-
lent. I think our community
could really use this, particu-
larly at meetings.”
Mid-morning Karwath
met with nine members of
the Forest Service staff and
at a noon lunch he spoke to
about 80 representatives of
nonprofit and government
organizations and churches.
That group broke into small
discussion groups like the one
in the evening.
Problem areas highlighted
included the in-city vs. out-of-
city dynamic; the contentious,
disrespectful atmosphere at
some City meetings; lack of
affordable housing; and the
antagonism and polarization
around a number of city issues.
“I really endorse the prin-
ciples of the program. My
question is: how do we do it?”
asked Sisters resident David
Johnson.
Holdman assured Johnson
that the C4C would assist peo-
ple to craft a plan. Karwath
offered that the important
thing is to get people to the
table to discuss the deep
issues that are motivating their
stance. Then it is possible
to get underneath expressed
issues to the real meaning,
emotions, and fears driving
their behavior and words.
SYP is a grass-roots move-
ment that can be modified or
expanded to fit the culture of
Sisters. Or it can be adopted
exactly as written, or not at
all. The Citizens4Community
have tabulated the results of
the surveys filled out at each
gathering and will be look-
ing at next steps. (See related
story on page 31.)
For more information
contact Robyn Holdman at
citizensforcommunity@
gmail.com or 541-549-
1482. Their website is www.
citizens4community.com.
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